The Mission One electric superbike achieved a two-way, one-mile average speed of 150.059mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats on 1 September, setting a new AMA national record for electric motorcycles and delivering the clearest proof yet that the company can meet its lofty performance claims. But how close was the record bike to the one that will go on sale for $68,995 next year?>

We asked Jeremy Cleland, Mission's product manager and the man who rode the bike at Bonneville:

This bike was very close to the production version. The production
bike will get an even better version of the powertrain used as we still
have a lot of minor tweaks to improve the bike more. The batteries,
motor, motor controller are the exact same as the production bike. The
gearing was a 40T rear sprocket (from 45T on the production bike) to
get a top speed in excess of 161mph. This is a very easy sprocket
change any customer can do. The fairings were the same fairings we
used at the TTXGP which we refer internally to as our "race fairings"
which are free from lights, etc and are a bit more streamlined than the
production fairings but only by a small drag coefficient.

As for the rider it was all me. First time on the salt and it was
funner than I could have possibly imagine. Who thought going in a
straight line could be so thrilling?

The Mission One's goal is to offer a top speed of 150mph with a maximumrange of up to 150 miles. A disappointing fourth place at June's TTXGPleft us worried that these claims were far from realistic, but thisrecord definitively proves that the top speed is an accurate number.

The company hopes to sell 300 Mission One's in 2010.

"This is a bike that can rip up the track at Infineon Raceway, do powerwheelies at 80 mph, and then come out here to Bonneville and dismantlethe prior electric world speed record," continues Jeremy. "It pullshard all the way from 0 on up to 161mph, all in one gear, withincredible torque."